


Battle Scars

by lxonardo



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Battle Scenes, F/F, Late Night Conversations, Mental Breakdown, Nonbinary Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Scars, Trauma, argue w me abt using they pronouns and you Die (blocked)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-22 12:56:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15582483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lxonardo/pseuds/lxonardo
Summary: don’t you love it when you’re a kid and you have to go through a war-like mission just to save a city, along with your other friendsand don’t you especially love it when you had to fight your girlfriend in battle, twice?war is traumatizing, kids





	Battle Scars

**Author's Note:**

> wow my first splatoon fic  
> also i came up with names for them on the spot with no significant meaning so like

Nights like this always seemed stressful. Nights with no light; no moon or stars, not a sound to be heard. Only sounds within the apartment left an unsettling atmosphere. The rapidly spinning fan, which caused other stuff to gently crinkle and collide like posters and dangling decor hanging from the ceiling were examples. But the worst noises came from within.

Agent 3 lies in their bed along with 8 by their side, was 8 clings onto their body as she slept. 3 was in the point of sleep where’d they almost wake up, as their heart rate increases, and their body becoming warmer. As these things gradually increase, 3 suddenly rises, gasping as if they had saw a ghost.  
They look down to their hands, then their arms, seeing scars from their past missions. Those scars were faded by now, since it’s been two years, but they were visible enough to make 3 self conscious. They began to shake a bit, covering their mouth as they felt tears welling up.

They realized that 8 was here, and they looked down at her, slightly relieved she was still sound asleep. They began to shift out of bed quickly but quietly, not to disturb the octoling from her sleep. As they got out of bed, they covered 8 body up to her shoulders with the now messed up blanket. They sighed as they went into the bathroom, locking it in the process and turning on a night light placed in their bathroom.

Though the light was fairly dim, they could still clearly see themself in the mirror, along with their facial scar from their recent  _sanitized_ event. They slowly reached to touch their faint teal scar that covered their right eye and part of their cheek and ear. Despite that being nearly a month ago, they still felt the goo on them, causing them to scratch their scar. They began to hyperventilate, realizing it won’t come off, and before they knew it, tears were coming through. 3 was mostly a silent crier, along with some gasping and sniffling. Their heart began to race again, and they started sweating. Memories came back; the octarians, injuries during battle, ambushes, DJ Octavio, being brainwashed, and even fighting against 8, _twice_.

They collapsed on the floor, the landing softer due to the rug on the floor. They became so overwhelmed they couldn’t breathe properly. Memories of a specific battle wouldn’t stop occurring. Memories of a specific agent.

~

_It was the last phase. A cool remix of a song 3 knew played in the background. They had used almost their special they hacked. Both agents were injured, but they couldn’t give up. It was their duty not to fail._

_They plotted for a moment before superjumping to 8’s location, followed by a splashdown. Groans that came from the octoling meant one step closer to succeeding, as Commander Tartar ordered._

_Though an injured octoling wasn’t a dead one. They superjumped again, and again, but by the third time it didn’t work. Spending their last seconds looking around for the subject, 8 takes them by surprise with a bomb, which shamefully splats them._

_And that was the last thing before everything went black._

_~_

 

8 stirred in her sleep, noticing a loss of weight on the bed. They rubbed the flat surface, looking to see that 3 wasn’t in their bed with her. Becoming aware, she rises up, confused on where they’d gone.

“3? Cynth?” She calls, as she removes the covers and gets off the bed. She notices the night light in the bathroom is on, and is relieved at first.

Then she hears gasps, making her cautiously come closer to the door. 8 puts her ear against the door, hearing mumbling and uneven gasps. The octoling became nervous, knocking on the door without thinking.

“Cynth, _please_ open up,” she pleaded, wanting to help her partner. Not hearing a reply, she knocked again.

They couldn’t move. They couldn’t talk or breathe or think but only of traumatic memories. The knocking came again, only getting louder.

“ _Cynth_ , please open the door!” 8 panicked, beginning to weld tears. She really wants to help out, and she doesn’t want 3 to do anything to hurt themself.

“A..Angel..” 3 murmured, now shivering, feeling sticky with both old and fresh tears.

Angel looked around for a second, before looking on the small ledge on top of the door, seeing a spare key for the bathroom. She easily grabbed it by stretching and unlocked the door, turning on the regular bathroom light and immediately crawling to the floor besides 3.

Gently pulling them off the floor, she led them to her lap, as they fit perfectly as 8 had the height advantage. Crying herself, she began leaving kisses all over their face, especially parts with their scars, uncaring of the tear stains. 3 hung onto 8 tightly, finally calming down and regaining normal breathing.

“8, Angel...I’m so sorry…” they managed to say, their voice a bit hoarse. “I’m so sorry.”

8 was shocked and confused  by this, and looked at them in the eye, worried. “Sorry for what..?”

Agent 3 looked down after, ashamed of their actions. They didn’t mean to awake 8 from sleeping, especially because of their experiences.  
They began getting upset, then downright angry all within the few moments.

“Cod, it’s just…we shouldn’t have done any of this!” 3 exclaimed, making fists, unaware this scared 8.

“We shouldn’t have to go through the shit we did! I shouldn’t had to fight off octarians alone just to save the zapfish, neither should have 4, and you shouldn’t have to fight off fucked up versions of octarians just to even get a _chance_ of coming up to the surface!”

Agent 8 didn’t speak, but was horrified by 3’s sudden outburst. They weren’t really known to express as much emotions as this. It seemed they’ve been holding this in for a while, so she waited as they continued.

3 huffed. “We all have scars. From _war_. I was only _fourteen_ when I was recruited as Agent 3, and that was only _two_ years ago! Imagine the pressure being put on a fucking fourteen year old to stop the menace of DJ Octavio and saving a zapfish! And you, you deserved nothing that happened to you down there. You don’t deserve your bomb scars, you don’t deserve to be scared of autobombs, you don’t deserve to have the thought that I _hurt_ you.”

The inkling was crying again, only a little louder than usual. “If it weren’t for me, you probably wouldn’t have suffered the way you did, and I'm sorry!”

3 covered their face again, sobbing uncontrollably now, slowly backing away from 8. “I don’t deserve you.”

8 was speechless. _They think all this was their fault? That them not meeting would be better?_ She furrowed her eyebrows, offended. “No.. no. Don’t you dare say that to me!”

She grabbed their wrist with a bit of force and clamped their hands together. She had tears in her eyes, looking distraught.

“You mean the _world_ to me, Cynthia. I agree, what happened to us wasn’t right, but what’s done is done. We can only look to the future and recover and better ourselves from our past. But what happened _wasn’t_ your fault, please don’t blame yourself for that.”

Angel wiped away any of their tears, despite crying herself. She placed her forehead onto theirs, closing her eyes due to the blindness of her tears.

“ _I love you_ , 3. And I always will, and we will get through this together, and it’s okay to relapse, that’s part of the journey. But _please_ let me be there for you when you do, because you’ve been there for me, and you deserve to be happy.. _We_ deserve happiness, and you all ready make me very so.”

Agent 3 looked devastated when they saw her cry. Going nonverbal, they wiped her tears and held their face, kissing their nose and forehead As they touched her face, her tentacles began to curl up, which was her way of showing she enjoyed that affection. 8 looked beautiful, though she was sad, which discourages 3 from further affection and backs up a bit.

“Fuck...how did I meet someone like you…” they trailed off, now numb from earlier. They went back to holding hands, with 8 frowning at their remark.

3 dazed off, beginning to be overcome by drowsiness and warmth by their girlfriend. They then noticed their shirt, which the collar area was partially drenched in tears. They imagined their oversized shirt was worse, as they were on the floor and sweating for some time. Cynth reaches to gently grasp Angel’s wrist, looking back at her.

“‘M..sorry by the way..”

“Shh..don’t be. It’s not your fault.”

Normally, 3 would curse themself for showing this much emotion. They were the more ‘mature’ agent, who took a while to warm up to people let alone show their vulnerability. But they were too tired to think right now, and only cared that 8 was in their presence, helping them through their trauma. And they’d always be there for hers.

They got closer, now 3 placing both their hands on the octoling’s soft cheeks. The leaned and gave a small kiss as their way of saying thank you. 8 knew well what this meant, kissing her back, happy they feel better. 3 repeated their actions, mumbling ‘I love you’s’. Soon, 8 began to hum a familiar tune, _Into the Light_ , by _Off the Hook_ , and though 3 wasn’t too familiar with the song or the band themself, they’ve heard it before, and enjoyed the message behind it. She sometimes switch between humming and singing in her native tongue, with 3 enjoying her angelic voice. They cuddled on the floor for a bit, with 3 letting 8 touching their face and ears.

“I may not remember my life before I went underground, but honestly? I don’t think I want to. Because of you, au have a better life, and I can choose who I can be, what I can do, who I can love.. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything else. We’ve fought octolings before, and we know they’ve been brainwashed their whole lives with war. I don’t want to go back to that, ever.” Angel rambled, realizing how much 3 impacted her life for the better. “You set me free, Cynth.”

A tight hug came from Cynth, as they held on for dear life. Hearing that made them feel a bit better, knowing they’ve helped out the one they cared about the most. They then trail to her back, and went under her shirt where her major scar was. They’ve seen it a couple of times; the color was similar to their facial scar, but hers was from the many bomb explosions C.Q. caused. 8 didn’t seem to mind them touching her back, despite their hands being cold.

Angel traced along the outline of their scar, admiring it. Cynth _hates_ that scar the most, and usually never talked about it, let alone let anyone touch it. It reminds them about _him_ , and what he tried to do. They flinched a bit when she first touched it, but eventually eased up. Feeling buried emotions rising up, they let out tears of frustration, leading 8 to wipe them away.

She gently kissed their eyelid, caressing their cheek with her thumb. “I know.. it’s okay.”

They then buried their face into 8’s chest, mostly preventing her from touching their face anymore. She sighed, though understanding why they didn’t want to talk about that right now. The warmth caused 3 to become tired, yawning and losing their grip around her, falling asleep.

Chuckling, 8 easily carried 3 out of the bathroom and into the bed. They were already asleep as 8 tucked them in and got in alongside with them. Soon after, 8 herself felt tired and cuddled up to 3, who wrapped around her instinctively. She covered both of them with the blanket, and kissed their forehead before sleeping. As if they had a mind on their own, 8's short tentacles wraps around 3's longer ones, in a protective mode. 


End file.
